Hmm, I may have just felt another earthquake… or a huge truck fell over in my town somewhere.

Had a really shitty morning. I had prepared a whole lesson for music, and even drawn this hella cool worksheet with little illustrations of various lyrics from three songs. We were to focus on Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which is slow and popular enough that the kids might know about it. The first class I went to, though, could have given a rat’s ass. For some reason final exams end like a month before lessons finish, which of course removes all hint of motivation to study, especially for less useful things like English. A good majority of the class all but ignored me and the teacher, and my teacher said, “They are being rude, you don’t have to continue the lesson.” So I didn’t. I unplugged the CD player, gathered my things, and a few of the better students looked stunned. This thing probably doesn’t happen at all. I thanked them very loudly in japanese, with clear sarcasm that they could even understand, were they listening.

I wanted to die, or more accurately, to kill. What a waste. This is why I’d rather just teach the textbook lessons, this is the thing I thought I had left behind when Kasasa high school closed. It was a fun, silly thing, and I was shat upon. I understood the reasons, if I were a student that had fulfilled all my responsibilities, , I wouldn’t wanna work too hard either. But to just turn around and start talking to others while there are teachers? I was upset.

I returned to my desk and found an e-mail on my phone from my friend Tammy. She was telling me about how her school had a “Creativity” or “Originality” class, in which the teacher… just gave lectures. Maybe showed a movie. The teacher claimed it was too hard to do anything else. Too hard to break these kids out their “just obey and be like everyone else” mindset, you mean. That just made my upsettedness turn into something hotter, more filled with anger. Sure, there are those people, the artistic geniuses we hear about all over the world, who are so creative they just explode past the rest of japanese society. But what about all the lesser, but still potentially creative kids? They get squashed, join a company, and become automatons. Horrific.

I’m in a much better mood now, though… some sunlight came out (how sensitive I am to its majesty), the second class took to my music lesson far better, i got a surprise letter from back home, and I drank the blood of those who opposed me. a perfect conclusion!